Hyderabad, July 8: Disoriented by the Congress high command’s frosty response to their resignations, Telangana Congress MLAs and MPs wrestled with the what next question Thursday.
They were invited to come hither by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), which decided suddenly to postpone its rail roko programme scheduled for Friday and Saturday and instead, concentrate on roping in all the ‘resigned MLAs’ together to power the separatist movement.
However, Congress legislators met among themselves at Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy’s house on Thursday to ask each other what the impact of their resignations had been. Many were wary of responding to overtures from TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram lest they incur further wrath from the high command.
Prof Kodandaram is proposing that the various parties fighting for Telangana statehood be brought under one umbrella. He is contemplating a meeting of all those who have resigned in the last three days. But the resignees, a majority of them from the Congress, are aware that Kodandaram is seen as a TRS mask by the Congress high command and wary of flirting too close with TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Quite contrary to the sense of disappointment felt by some, several of the Congress resignees think they did achieve a measure of success from their Delhi daredevilry. “We have forced the Centre to take note of the Telangana issue. Earlier they used to ignore it. We think it’s a matter of time before this will reach a logical conclusion,” said one Congress MLA.
Some of the quitters said the resignations successfully embarrassed the party and brought it face to face with the reality that the Telangana imbroglio has the potential to alter the numbers game at the Centre.
That was how the party leadership was forced to initiate the process of a dialogue, implying that any specific and time-bound programme on Telangana might make the legislators consider withdrawing resignations. As the deadlock is likely to continue for some time, the legislators are planning to visit their constituencies.
For the party high command, withdrawal of resignations is important. For that to happen, the Congress quitters want the party to give them something concrete to crow about from this adventure. Though the party is contemplating constitution of a consultative committee to begin the dialogue process, it might not be enough of a fig leaf for the resignees.
On the other side of the equation, Congress leaders from Andhra-Rayalaseema are gearing up for another meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on July 12 or 13.
–Agencies